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1881 Mexican elections
The 1881 Mexican elections were initially scheduled to take place on 14 August 1881 for the purpose of choosing the President and Congress of the United States of Mexico. After a police raid on the Workers' Coalition convention on 15 July sparked a national uprising by radical Mexicanos, the leaders of both major parties agreed to postpone the elections to 21 September. After the death of incumbent President George Vining on 12 September, the elections were postponed indefinitely. Vining and the Moralistas President Vining had been chosen by the Senate on 9 December 1879 to fill out the remainder of Omar Kinkaid's second term after the latter's assassination two days before. It had been expected that Vining would serve as a caretaker until the 1881 elections, but once in office, Vining insisted on exercising the full powers of the presidency. Vining's accession coincided with the outbreak of revolution in France, which saw the French royal family murdered by the Paris mob and the monarchy replaced by a radical revolutionary republic. A wave of violent radicalism swept through Europe and the Confederation of North America in the early months of 1880. In this climate of growing radicalism, Vining was determined to put an end to the Moralistas, a revolutionary movement led by former Senator Carlos Concepción of Chiapas. To combat the Moralistas, Vining created the Constabulary, a secret police force led by Benito Hermión, son of revered former President Pedro Hermión. Hermión was also a business partner and ally of California tycoon and Continentalist Party boss Bernard Kramer, though Sobel does not say whether this influenced Vining's choice. In spite of the political nature of his selection, Hermión proved to have a knack for investigation, and did well as Commandant of the Constabulary. As the Moralistas were driven back from the cities into their bases in the Sierra Madre, Hermión's popularity increased, and politicians in Mexico City began to speculate that he would be chosen by the Continentalists to succeed Vining in 1881. Kramer himself favored the idea, and he planned to have Hermión nominated at the Continentalist caucus meeting in April 1881. Nominations and Massacre Unknown to Kramer, Vining had decided to seek the nomination for himself. He told the convention that he was prepared "to assume the burdens of the presidency if the Almighty and this Convention so desires." Kramer wished to avoid a divisive convention fight, and he was satisfied with Vining's administration of the government, so he ordered Hermión to refuse the nomination if it was offered, and to do nothing to encourage his supporters. Senator Patrick Mahoney of Jefferson did indeed nominate Hermión, but the Commandant declined to appear at the convention, and Vining won the party's nomination. In early July the Liberty Party caucus met and nominated Senate Minority Leader Thomas Rogers of Arizona as its presidential nominee. In his acceptance speech on 4 July 1881, he called Concepción "a cancer that would destroy our society, and bring to an end this noble experiment in republicanism." At the same time, Rogers denounced the power of Kramer and other wealthy Continentalist backers, saying, "The large corporations of California and Jefferson control not only those states, but the rest of the nation as well. Large problems require large solutions. If elected, I promise to curb the influence of those elements in our society that operate against the common good." Eleven days after Rogers' nomination, the Workers' Coalition held its own convention in the Chipan capital of Palenque. The convention was raided by Constabulary agents on its opening day, and a firefight broke out between agents and delegates. Twenty-three delegates were killed, including W.C. leader José Godoy, and the Massacre of Innocents at Palenque led to a full-scale uprising by the U.S.M.'s Mexicanos. Vining called a special meeting of the Cabinet, to which he invited Rogers and other Libertarian leaders. He and Rogers agreed to postpone the elections to 21 September. In addition, Mexico was placed under martial law, Constabulary officers were given powers over the regular army, and Hermión was placed in charge of the campaign to end the Mexicano insurrection. On the morning of 12 September, Vining was visited by a delegation of Libertarian senators who protested the abuses of the Constitution by Hermión's agents. Vining told them, "Have no fear for the Constitution. I have it here in the Palace, and will release it once peace returns to our land." However, any plans Vining was contemplating were cut short that afternoon, when he suffered a fatal heart attack. Coup D'etat The next day, for the second time in two years, the Senate met to choose a successor to a dead president. The task was complicated by the fact that the presidential election was only eight days away, and the Continentalist Party had no nominee. The Libertarians supported Rogers, while the Continentalists favored Secretary of State Marcos Ruíz. The Senate was deadlocked until Senator Frank Hill, acting on orders from Bernard Kramer, proposed that the Cabinet act as a collective executive until the elections. Under the pressure of the emergency, and possibly with financial encouragement from Kramer, the Senate agreed to Hill's proposal. At the next Cabinet meeting, two days later, Hermión claimed to have proof that several important Libertarians were under the control of French revolutionaries, but that he could not reveal his evidence because two members of the Cabinet were themselves working for the French. He proposed that the election be postponed indefinitely, and the Cabinet voted seven to four to do so. Hermión then proposed the creation of the office of Chief of State to serve as national executive during the emergency, and this was also passed. The Cabinet then voted to make Hermión himself Chief of State. The next day, Hermión appeared before the Senate to request confirmation of the Cabinet's decisions. The Libertarian caucus strongly objected, with Rogers denouncing Hermión as "a man of great ambition but little character." A vote on Hermión's request was postponed until the next day. That night, Constabulary agents arrested five Libertarian senators, including Rogers' chief lieutenant, Fritz Carmody of Mexico del Norte. Rogers himself was warned of the action and escaped from Mexico City, along with his family and that of imprisoned Senators Schuyler Stanley and Winthrop Sharp. By the morning of the 17th, every major Libertarian politician in Mexico City was either in jail, in hiding, had suffered a mysterious "death by accident," or had gone over to the Continentalists. That afternoon, the fourteen remaining members of the Senate met to ratify the Cabinet's decisions from two days earlier, and Hermión was appointed Chief of State of the U.S.M. The postposed elections were never held. Sources Sobel's sources for the abortive 1881 Mexican elections are Earl Watson's The Right Man: The Vining Administration (Mexico City, 1943); Mortimer Dow's The Giants of Mexico: The Political Maneuverings of Kramer and Benedict in the Industrial Era (Mexico City, 1950); William Berry's The Dead Are Unburied in the Plaza: The Mexican Repression of 1881 (Mexico City, 1956); Orrin Macon's The Palenque Convention in Mexican History (Mexico City, 1960); and Bernard Mix's The Night of the Caballeros: The Hermión Seizure (London, 1964). Category:Mexican elections